Apple Pay Suica Guide: Getting Started

Suica is a transit prepaid card system developed by JR East, with Suica you can ride Japanese trains and buses nationwide and also use it for store purchases. Nothing beats the convenience of Apple Pay Suica for travel all over Japan purchasing things on the go.

Apple Pay Suica is ‘superglue’ that lets visitors enjoy the convenience of Japanese contactless payments in stores and transit while using Apple Pay cards from home to add money. This is a unique feature of Apple Pay Suica not available on any other platform for inbound visitors.

Anybody from anywhere with iPhone 8 and later, iPhone X or later, Apple Watch Series 3 or later can add and use Suica. To help inbound visitors enjoy the benefits of Apple global FeliCa support here is an Apple Pay Suica guide.

If you don’t have a plastic Suica you can get one at any Tokyo area JR station as shown in the JR East video below (the one minute mark).

Add Plastic Suica to iPhoneiPhone 8 / iPhone X or later required, the latest iOS recommended. Have your JR East issue Suica card ready and the last 4 digits of the Suica ID number on the back. Only Suica issued by JR East can be added to Apple Pay. Suica cards issued by Tokyo Monorail or elsewhere cannot be added.

Set Region to Japan, open Wallet and tap “+”

Tap Continue

Tap Suica and follow screen instructions to add your plastic Suica

1) Set your iPhone Region to Japan, after Suica is setup Region can be any preferred setting. Open Wallet, tap , tap Continue, tap Suica and follow the screen instructions, also explained on Apple’s Set up a Suica card in Apple Pay:

-Verify the last 4 digits of the Suica card number
-If adding My Suica or Commuter Suica add your birthdate
-Transfer a Suica card by resting the top of your iPhone on the middle of the Suica card. Leave it on the card without moving it and may take a few minutes to complete.
-The plastic Suica ¥500 deposit is automatically added to the Apple Pay Suica balance when the transfer is successfully completed
-You cannot use the plastic Suica after transferring it to iPhone

2) Add Money (Suica Recharge): in Wallet, tap the Suica card, tap , tap Add Money, then choose the amount, and tap “Add”. Select the card you want to pay from use Touch ID / Face ID to complete the transaction. Any Apple Pay card from home is good for Suica Recharge. Go here for details.

3) Suica Express Transit mode is automatically turned on when you first add a Suica card to Apple Pay. With Express Transit you do not use Touch ID or Face ID, you don’t need to wake or unlock your device or open an app to use transit or make the purchase. Simply hold the top of your iPhone or display of your Apple Watch within a few centimeters of the contactless reader until you see Done and a checkmark on the display.

You might need to select Suica payment on some store terminals when you pay (Lawson, AEON) . Most of the time just say, “Suica!” to the cashier then hold iPhone to the reader. For transit hold iPhone to the gate reader and go through in a single motion:

Suica Express Transit is convenient and secure:

Express Cards only work while Face ID/Touch ID is active. Express Cards stop working when Face ID/Touch ID is disabled.

Suica is a pre-paid card, it only holds the amount of money that you add to it with Apple Pay, or with cash

On iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, Express Cards with power reserve is available for up to five hours when your iPhone needs to be charged. You can press the side button to check if Express Cards are available when your iPhone needs to be charged. Doing this often may significantly reduce the power reserve for Express Cards. If you choose to power off your iPhone, this feature will not be available.

Apple Pay Suica Express Card with power reserve on iPhone XS and iPhone XR lasts up to 5 hours. You can use it for transit, recharge and purchase.

Apple Pay Suica Coverage
You can use Apple Pay Suica anywhere you can use plastic Suica. Apple Pay Suica is good for all the major transit IC systems covering rail and bus nationwide. It is good for convenience stores, vending machines, anywhere that accepts Japan IC Transit cards, look for the Transit IC or Suica acceptance logo mark at the payment terminal. The Suica mark is everywhere.

Add Suica to Apple Watch with Global FeliCa iPhone
If you are using Apple Watch with iPhone 8 or later, iPhone X or later, all you need to do is add Suica to iPhone explained above, then transfer it to Apple Watch. See “Move your Suica from your iPhone to your Apple Watch” in the Set up a Suica card in Apple Pay support page for details.

Add Suica to Apple Watch without Global FeliCa iPhoneIf you are using an older iPhone paired with Apple Watch Series 3 or later create a virtual Suica with Suica App on iPhone then transfer it to Apple Watch.

Preflight check list

iPhone running the latest iOS version paired with Apple Watch Series 3 or later also running the latest WatchOS

A credit card already loaded into your iPhone Apple Pay Wallet. The card can be any Apple Pay compatible card issued from your home country

Mobile data app use turned on for Suica, Wallet and Watch apps

Passcode set for both iPhone and Apple Watch

Apple Watch wrist detection turned on

Network access when adding Suica to Apple Pay

Suica App installed

iPhone and Apple Watch Region set to Japan, after Suica is setup Region can be any preferred setting

The last step is transferring Suica from iPhone to Apple Watch with the Watch app. See the “Move your Suica from your iPhone to your Apple Watch” section of the Set up a Suica card in Apple Pay support page if you need details.

Suica Express Transit and Store NFC ReadersUsing the Apple Pay Suica Express Transit feature of iPhone and Apple Watch is slick, secure and very convenient. It’s the big killer feature heavily marketed by Apple and JR East in Japan and fun to use for transit and store purchases.

Simply hold the top of your iPhone X or later / iPhone 8 or later, or the display of your Apple Watch Series 3 or later within a few centimeters of the contactless reader until you see Done and a checkmark on the display. You don’t need to wake or unlock your device or open an app to make the purchase.

You can test this for yourself at the transit gate or self checkout at NewDays station stores:

In the field however some older store readers are not Suica Express Transit savvy and require Touch ID / Face ID.

The Good
Fortunately, all convenience stores and almost all NFC store readers are Express Transit card savvy with newer readers and POS systems rapidly being deployed. Just say, “Suica!” to the cashier then hold iPhone to the reader. NFC readers like the ones pictured below work great.

The Panasonic JT-R550CR has both FeliCa and EMV contactless certification.

Standard PASMO style reader

MiniStop NFC reader

These terminals are appearing everywhere in McDonalds and MOS Burger

The new 7-Eleven POS priorities: big 7-Eleven Nanaco card NFC logo on top, smaller EMV in the middle and a tiny FeliCa logo on the bottom.

Old style 7 Eleven NFC reader are disappearing quickly but still work very well.

The Bad
Unfortunately some NFC readers are not Express Transit card savvy. Older J Mups NFC readers force you to wake the device, manually select the Apple Pay Suica card, perform Touch ID or Face ID authentication then hold iPhone/Apple Watch to the reader. Be patient as transaction is very slow. Be wary when you encounter the older black JREM NFC readers pictured below on the left, the newer J Mups JREM readers pictured on the right work great.

Old J Mups JREM readers are not Apple Pay Suica Express Card savvy

New JREM readers are extremely reliable and work great

The UglyUT1-Neo NFC readers show below are Suica Express Transit card savvy but sensitive how iPhone is held. The trick is to hold iPhone to the reader before it is activated and keep iPhone still until the reader beeps. Ignore the iPhone ‘transaction complete’ sound. UT1-Neo NFC readers are found in smaller stores and coffee shops such as Ueshima Coffee and Tsubakiya Coffee. Newer UT-X10 readers with EMV contactless acceptance mark work great.

UT1-Neo readers are found in many local coffee shop chains such as Ueshima Coffee and Ginza Tsubakiya. Be sure to hold iPhone still until the reader beeps and ignore the iPhone transaction complete ‘ka-ching’ sound.

Apple Pay cards are linked to your Apple ID. If you sign out of iCloud your Apple Pay Suica card is stored on Mobile Suica cloud, see Migrate Suica to a new iPhone below to restore Suica. You must be signed in with the same Apple ID used to add Suica. If you sign into iCloud with a different Apple ID than the one used to add Suica, you cannot access Suica.